Breakdown

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Vomiting in a toilet is just the beginning.

By Hilary Goldstein

Don't you hate it when a movie trailer is ten times better than the movie? There's nothing worse than being hyped for a flick four months in advance only for the finished product to be a poorly assembled mess. Namco's Breakdown is the case of a video games to totally astound with its trailer (which got much love at Microsoft's E3 2003 press conference) only to come up very short with the finished product. It's a great idea, to create a true first-person experience with a smart sci-fi story that truly absorb gamers into "the experience," but Breakdown never really amounts to anything more than the idea. From mindless AI to boring and generic level-design, Breakdown plays out more like a bad Schwarzenegger flick (repetitive, unfunny, and without soul) than a work of staggering genius. Yet still, this is one of those bad games I couldn't help but enjoy, even as I cursed its very existence.

Features

True first-person perspective offers a unique gaming experience

Smart sci-fi story begins as typical but turns into a classic by games end

Unlockable galleries, but no bonus modes

Dolby Digital 5.1

480p support

Gameplay As studly Derrick, you begin Breakdown waking up in an antiseptic lab room with no memories of your past and no idea where or even who you are (sort of like freshman year in college). The rest of the game (which should take you about seven hours to complete) follows Derrick's journey to discovery as he tries to save the world from the mutant menace known as the T'Lan. Yeah, an amnesia patient with hidden gifts who's destined to save the world isn't exactly new, but Namco has done a nice job of taking a cliche story and flippin' a bitch two-thirds of the way through to make for a truly captivating ending. It's that one big twist that makes the story not only fresh, but also helps to redeem some of the game's lackluster design.

Breakdown is a first-person action game in the truest sense. While there are a half-dozen guns in the game, the majority of combat is done hand-to-hand. This is a risky choice, because the history of games that have tried to do melee combat in the first person (see Maken X or Hexen) shows a lot of games with more ambition than execution. What sets Breakdown apart is that it's a true first-person perspective. Get socked in the jaw by an enemy and the camera flies backwards with the snap of Derrick's head or do a backflip and you earn the sensation (and confusion) of a world turning upside down. This can offer for some very cool moments (like a scripted scene where you are grabbed by the throat and smashed into a wall) and some serious motion-sickness. It really drives home the fact that some brute is tossing your salad when you see everything exactly as it happens to your character.

Those sweet moments come in stark contrast to the majority of gameplay, however, which is about as uninspired as it gets. Combat is designed for one-on-one battles. Using the Left and Right Triggers (left hand/foot and right hand/foot) in combination with the Left Thumbstick results in a variety of attacks from one-two punches to powerful uppercuts. Fighting a baddie mono-y-mono can be exhilarating. It feels like a fight and can be fun, even though it's easy to become disoriented as your view switches radically depending on the type of attack. But when it comes to fighting multiple enemies, you're screwed. And, unfortunately, you are often fighting multiple enemies.

The AI in Breakdown is mind-numbingly simplistic. Enemies basically just come right at you, all at once, without any tactics. So if you come into a room with three enemies, they often all descend on you, punching in unison. You can only block what's right in front of you so blocking all the attacks requires that you shift yourself to constantly keep all enemies in sight. However, most of your own attacks carry you forward and so when you have three enemies in front of you, a punch at one baddie will almost always put the other two at your backside. This leads to cheap hits in the back, which then throws the camera wildly as Derrick flops to the ground.